A matter of priority: COVID-19 vaccination and mental health

year actively excluded those with severe mental illness from receiving COVID-19 vaccines, a move shocking in its callousness and contempt for scientific evidence. The Lancet Psychiatry would like to highlight, however, that injustice is not inevitable. Some of the aforementioned European Union countries did not initially see the need to prioritise until new evidence from mental health researchers convinced them otherwise. In the UAE, mental health clinicians and academics spoke out against the government's initial policy, and the exclusion of those with severe mental illness was reversed. These are small but important victories, and they demonstrate the need for our community to unite and continue focusing our efforts on evidence and advocacy to improve